Tinker
Tinker is one of the twelve power classifications created by the PRT still in modern day use.“I do,” Weld nodded. He’d memorized it as a rhyme, as suggested by his old boss. Maybe that had been the intention from the start: Mover, Shaker, Brute and Breaker. Master, Tinker, Blaster and Thinker, Striker, Changer, Trump and Stranger. - Sentinel 9.1 Tinkers have the ability to fabricate alien or advanced technology.Tinker - Building alien or advanced technology. Thinkers arise from solutionless problems over long periods, culminating in crisis moment. - WD Rulebook: Character Creation - Trigger Capes: Classifications Methodology Tinkers are distinct from other parahumans in that their powers don’t work through them so much as they enable them to fabricate things:Tinkers are capes with powers that don’t work through the cape so much as they enable the individual to fabricate things. By creating tinkers, the entities can explore options, taking powers that have been explored in depth and allowing it to be explored in more depth, or attempting to ‘crack’ the particulars of a field or specialty of a species from earlier in the cycle. - TINKERS, document by wildbow. They can create devices or alter existing devices well beyond usual restrictions of education, knowledge, resources, or physics.Can create devices or alter existing devices well beyond usual restrictions of education, knowledge, resources, and/or physics. Tinkers are less dangerous when removed from their gear, but should not be assumed to be harmless. A typical tinker can artificially assume any number of other classifications, depending on specialty. Specialty should be appended to the classification in every case possible. (ie. phasing specialty or electricity specialty) Threat level 2+: Team is notified as to tinker classification. Disruption is encouraged, with use of flashbangs. Threat level 5+: Electromagnetic pulses are authorized to disrupt gear, with some property damage likely. Threat level 9+: Other tinkers or liasions should be contacted to better inform about capabilities and to answer immediate threats. - PRT Master Reference - Classifications - Tinker Most Tinkers have a specialty, an area of technology in which they operate either exclusively or better than others.“Close enough,” Armsmaster said. It struck me he would be a Tinker, if his Halberd and armor were any indication. That, or he got his stuff from someone else. He elaborated, “Well, most Tinkers have a specialty or a special trick. Something they’re particualrly good at or something that they can do, which other Tinkers can’t. Bakuda’s specialty is bombs.” - Gestation 1.6 Tinkers are among the most flexible parahumans, as a typical Tinker can artificially assume any number of other classifications depending on specialty, in addition to drawing inspiration from the powers of other parahumans or the work of other Tinkers.But tinkers vary a great deal in how they get their ideas. How fast, how many, how varied. In many cases, tinkers can find their way to new ideas by studying powers or studying the work of other tinkers. Bakuda develops time and space warping bombs (the slow grenade, the feature-warping thing she almost put up Grue's nose) by scanning and studying stuff that was affected by Clockblocker and Vista's powers. Armsmaster does much the same, with the time stop halberd (Clockblocker) and EMP pulse (Battery). In Dragon's case, well, she has access to a wealth of confiscated and 'submitted for internal review' PRT stuff. - Spacebattles comment by wildbow. Tinkers can be divided in twelve sub-categories:For the purposes of this document, we loosely categorize methodologies into twelve sub-categories. As previously established, each tinker trigger is different, and different circumstances lead to different sorts of approaches to tinkering, ranging from the combat heavy to the megaproject focused or the noncombat tinker. The key focus in determining what the methodology is, as stated above, the nature of the problem the tinker faces, in the course of the trigger. - TINKERS, document by widlbow. Trigger event Tinkers arise from problems without solutions that take place over long periods, culminating in crisis moment. The elements of the trigger build up over weeks or months and are inexorably tied into the moment the character triggers.Tinker triggers involve a time component, specifically a longer period of time building up to the trigger itself, and an element of a problem without solution. This isn’t to be confused with triggers where a bad life circumstance leads into a distinct event - in such a case every character would be a tinker. The elements of the trigger build up over weeks or months, and are inexorably tied into the moment the character triggers. - TINKERS, document by wildbow. The exact nature of the problem informs the type of Tinker that emerges (see also the table above), while other key elements, such as surrounding features, context and details determine the Tinker’s specialty.The key factors to note here are the nature of the problem without solution and the key elements of the trigger itself. The problem determines the tinker’s methodology. This is how the tinker derives inspiration, builds, and the breadth of options available to them in building. The key elements are the surrounding features, context, and details that determine the flavor of the resulting powers, the specialty itself. - TINKERS, document by wildbow. Tinker devices used by others A Tinker device is impossible for normal humans to recreate, reverse-engineer, or even maintain. Tinkers not only work with highly advanced technology, production and maintenance is also extremely precise, requiring the aid of the Tinker’s power to get right.There's more to it, but Gearboy might not understand all the factors going into the crafting or maintenance process. He leans on his power for some things. Creates a situation where, even with Gearboy creating detailed guides and painstaking video tutorials that walk through how he repaired a simple hull breach in his robot suit, you could get metallurgists and robot designers working together as a committee and missing some critical detail like how ambient humidity during the weld impacts the cross-exterior conduction and complex stresses for the future, or even power-granted awareness of planetary gravity/rotation/tidal influences on nano-crystal matrices. TL;DR: It's bullshit. - Sufficient Velocity comment by wildbow. Even extremely minor factors that the Tinker isn’t consciously aware of can have great effect on the end result: Examples include ambient temperature, radio waves and earth's superposition in the galaxy.Think about it this way - you sit down to build something, you have a partial idea in mind, your power supplies the rest of the instructions and components. You get into the zone, you tinker away, and a lot of your actions become automatic. The shard, meanwhile, is working in concert. They supply the ideas and the mental pictures, what's necessary and what's up to your imagination. Then, as you get underway, they assess variables like ambient temperature, radio waves, earth's superposition in the galaxy, the materials you're working with, fine tuning to an extreme. People using a camera can't track all of the individual details, so they copy what they can, but the pieces don't fit together, the metal has superfine stresses and vulnerabilities they aren't aware of, the elements don't jibe, and it just doesn't work. - reddit comment by wildbow. Tinkers are often able to modify devices of other Tinkers, although even here the end-result will be of lesser quality.A tinker named Gearboy is commissioned to produce a mechanical battlesuit for the army, ok. That’s doable. But if the suit breaks down, or if it gets normal wear and tear, there’s really only one person who understands it well enough to fix it (beyond surface damage). The tinker who made it. Kid Win mentions, when modifying the earbud with Armsmaster’s lie detector, that anything he does will naturally be less elegant and the work will suffer for it. The same applies for anything in regular use with non-tinkers. The soldiers won’t know how to fix up the suit. So it gets damaged: hole in the chest. Repair team checks there’s no damage to internal components, patch up the hole with a metal plate welded in place like they might with a vehicle, only to find that the suit’s overheating and it’s walking funny. They call up the tinker, but he’s elbow deep in another job. They resign themselves to having the suit deployed for no more than an hour at a time. - Scourge 19.6, comment by wildbow. On the other hand, others – even ordinary humans – are able to use Tinker devices. Tinkers can equip teammates with items (although this is not customary),“It’s not customary for tinkers to design things for teammates. If they do, it’s on a relatively small scale, simple. Kid Win making Gallant’s armor, for example. Any device requires a great deal of upkeep. Time is spent tuning, calibrating, repairing and identifying problems. Each device created is something the tinker then has to take time to maintain, and mass production means the tinker becomes tech support more than an innovator. Dragon and I don’t sleep, or sleep very little, but even for us, it isn’t effective. Far better to invest our time into the artificial intelligences and the ships.” - Drone 23.5 while some Tinkers, such as those from Toybox, sell their goods on the black market.“Toybox is a black market organization,” Miss Militia said. “Tinkers who operate solo find life rather difficult, due to a lack of resources and the fact that gangs and government organizations are very, very persistent when it comes to recruiting them. Faced with the prospect of spending their lives on the run, trying to avoid being forcibly recruited into one organization or another, most turn to the Protectorate or the Wards. For those few who don’t, Toybox is… was a refuge of sorts. Tinkers would join, share technology, stay in the enclave as long as they needed to build up a reputation and whatever tools they needed, they would share thirty-three percent of any proceeds with the rest of the group, helping to keep others afloat. Toybox sustained itself with barter, by moving frequently, operating between the scope of heroes and villains, and by selling less-than-legal goods to criminal groups.” - Cell 22.2 As Tinker often place trackers on their gear, it’s generally unwise to steal it.“Taking a tinker’s stuff to keep is a bad idea, what with GPS signals and tracking and all that, but at the very least, we can use this to get out.” She swept her arm over the room, where stuff lay on every surface. - Parasite 10.4 Combinations with other ratings soon Role in the Cycle The entities create Tinkers to explore options, taking powers that have already been explored and allowing them to be explored in even more depth, or attempting to ‘crack’ the particulars of a field or specialty from a species from previous encounters. encountered earlier in the cycle. PRT countermeasures Tinkers are less dangerous when removed from their gear, but should not be assumed to be harmless. The PRT generally appends a Tinker’s specialty to the classification whenever possible, but has a hard time accurately rating a Tinker's threat level.Tinkers are very hard to slap a rating on, but as with anything, they're judged based on the threat they pose to the PRT/community. Bakuda went from threatening to blow up a building with strategically placed explosives (Tinker 6) to getting access to powers to study while working under Lung and alongside Oni Lee, then showing what she was truly capable of when Lung was arrested and she tried to build the ÜberEMP. - Spacebattles comment by wildbow. Known Tinkers Note: This list describes the Tinker ratings of different capes. For a full overview of their abilities, please check their individual pages. Trivia * Tinkers are unable to provide means for space travel: Shards would generally sabotage attempts at going into space.By and large, the shards would sabotage attempts at going to space. Even Sphere's moon base was probably doomed from the start. - reddit comment by wildbow. Navigation Category:Terminology